fry not growing much

[brea]

How long does it take for fry to reach adult stage? I currently have 2 spawns, 4 and 5 months old. It seems as if they should be bigger by now. There is only one which has developed his overall colouring, although he is probably still only half the size of the adult male. All of the others have got black colouring, with a few from the first spawn also getting some yellows. I have been feeding them crushed up tropical fish flakes, and they are in 100L tank with one bristle nose catfish. Anything I can do to speed up their growth a bit, or are they on track?

[Bumblebee]

sorry to say that is very slow growth . fortunatley they just seem like slow growers rather than stunted. there are three things you can do to speed up their growth.

A: probably the most important is water quality. a lot of breeders will strictly adhere to a schedule of tank hygene. Nitrate, the chemicle that is formed when fish waste is broken down from ammonia (toxic) and nitrite (toxic). is not toxic to fish but will eventually stunt their growth. This is best done with small 5-10% daily water changes or a larger 25% waterchange every week. And make sure you vacume all that poop out of the gravel at the same time!

B: Feed!. Although the guppy is omnivorous for the first month of its life it needs high protein live foods for BEST growth. This is usually in the form of baby brine shrimp. the fry are fed on average of 4-5 times daily in tiny meals. If this is not available you can grind up some spirulina powder, freezedried brineshrimp or tubifex with your flake. Variety is the key!. young adults can be grown on a mix of frozen fresh bloodworm and flake (use bloodworm sparingly).

C: temprature: Guppys will grow best at 26-28 degrees but care must be taken with water quality (high risk of bacterial disease at this temp) once they reach adulthood gups should be kept at 24c for a longer lifespan.

size

birth : 3-5mm
1-2 week : 1cm
2-4 week :2cm
6-8 weeks: males grow gonipodiums, start to colour (usually 6 weeks of age), females able to breed.
3 months: fully grown (then finnage and tails start developing properly)

[brea]

I probably should have fed them a bit more when they were newly born. Was still learning then unfortunatly!Im also wondering if there is too many in the tank and its limiting their growth? there are about 50 of them in 50L. oops, i think i put 100L in the other post. Anyway, I am going to sperate males and females this week, I have 100L tank all set up and it finished cycling a few weeks ago, hopefully this will help them grow a bit more.

The biggest male (5months) is about 3cm and the biggest female, same age, is about 2cm. the rest are around this size or smaller. Will they grow anymore, or do i have midget guppies, lol.

[Cyberguppy]

Gups will grow for their entire lifespan but the growth after the first few months is much slower.